Civility in transit: Are we rude when we drive and ride? (with video)

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Footage of a fight between two enraged motorists on the gridlocked streets of North Vancouver went viral on YouTube this past spring.

It showed a white-haired man chasing a younger man around his parked car, punching and kicking him as the younger man screams for mercy, before they both drive off in their respective cars. Another motorist captured the fisticuffs on a smartphone.

The disturbing exchange is an extreme example of a general level of rude behaviour that many British Columbians say is getting worse — particularly on the road, according to an Insights West survey.

Road rage attacks, cutting off other drivers, rude gestures, texting while driving — more than seven in 10 respondents to the survey said they regularly deal with a rude or impolite person while driving.

“If you want to be insulted at least once a month, drive a car or ride a car, and at least someone is going to give it to you,” said Mario Canseco, vice-president of public affairs at Insights West.

Seventy-two per cent of respondents said they had to deal with someone being rude or impolite while driving or riding in a car. That compares to just 47 per cent of public transit users who reported uncivil behaviour.

Not surprisingly, smartphones figure prominently. Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said people have always changed as soon as they get behind the wheel, but adding smartphones to the mix creates a “strange combination.”

“Even before smartphones, I think driving is one of those odd things where people are in a little bit of a bubble: their personalities change, they tend to be more aggressive, they tend to act in ways they certainly wouldn’t act if they were face-to-face in most circumstances,” he said. “What technology and, particularly, our busy lives, multi-tasking and our dependence on smartphones has done is it’s exacerbated that.”

MacDonald said it incenses him that people will condemn drunk driving yet a sheepish smirk appears when asked if they text behind the wheel.

Distracted driving kills about 91 people a year in the province, making it the third leading cause of fatal car crashes after speeding and drunk driving, according to figures released last month by ICBC.

Last week MacDonald released statistics showing his department has given 4,025 people $167 tickets since the law changed in 2010 to ban using hand-held devices while driving.

“The most discouraging thing for us is it’s not like we’re seeing a greater absorption of the message,” MacDonald said during a phone interview from his car, where he was using a hands-free device. “We’re not writing fewer tickets now in 2013 than we did in 2010, it remains pretty constant.”

Surprisingly, he said, more than two thirds of those drivers caught using the device of their choice were older than 30.

Technology and its steady erosion of face-to-face interactions was tipped as the culprit responsible for an increasing lapse in manners by 84 per cent of respondents. Only poor parenting rated higher.

This is understandable considering more than one in four British Columbians between the ages of 18 and 34 consider themselves hooked to their mobile device, according to another Insights West survey released in July. Overall, almost two-thirds of British Columbians own a smartphone — double the smartphone ownerships stats from two years ago. And the proportion of those owning smartphones jumps to 86 per cent among 18 to 34-year-olds.

Technology and people’s addiction to it leads to behaviour like smartphone zombies walking into others on the sidewalk or transit users oblivious to their surroundings.

“You’re not dealing with those who are around you because you’re dealing with something that you have in your hand,” Canseco said. “You’re essentially talking to your boss, maybe your friend, maybe your wife, whoever it is, but you’re not interacting with those around you and that is being seen as something that is rude and impolite.”

About half of transit users surveyed said they had encountered a fellow rider being rude or impolite at least a few times each month. A similar number said they had seen someone give up their seat for an elderly, disabled or pregnant person.

Each work day, federal employee Heidi Goodman and her husband drive from north Delta and park their truck at the Scott Road SkyTrain station before riding the train into downtown Vancouver.

Last year, when she was heavily pregnant -- “not just a little pregnant, but like people were scared of looking at me I was so pregnant” -- Goodman noticed a trend.

“The only people that ever did (give up their seat) were women, maybe because they know what it’s like to be pregnant,” Goodman said. “It’s just so incredibly busy, anytime you get packed people like that, people get anxious and miserable and cranky.

“It just made me think society has gone downhill if a pregnant woman can’t get a seat.”

Goodman’s other transit pet peeve is people listening to their music so loud that she can hear it while “sitting on the other side of the SkyTrain.”

Wise spends more than half an hour each day checking his work emails while riding the West Coast Express commuter train downtown from Port Moody. He said people are generally courteous but only talk to fellow passengers if the train stops or “something weird happens.”

“If I’m going to spend 40 minutes in transit each way, I can make it a productive time,” he said. “Also, play words with friends — I’m not all business.”

He just wants everybody to make sure their personal hygiene is kept up.

“Some people don’t bathe,” he said with a chuckle. “If you’re going to be in close quarters with people, you should probably take care of yourself.”

Over three quarters of respondents to Insights West’s new survey said they have witnessed someone texting or checking their phone during a meeting or a social event in the past month.

The addiction has led some younger people to start building “phone trees” while dining out. It involves piling their smartphones on top of each other and forcing the first person who grabs their device from the tree to pay a small fee or even the group bill.

Julie Lee has seen smartphone use ruin more than a few transactions as the owner and operator of the bustling Melriches Coffee Housein Davie village.

When smartphones exploded onto the market about six years ago, one of Lee’s exasperated baristas put up a small sign saying “No cellphones in lineup please, thank you so much!”

“People were distracted on their phones, they were holding up the lineup, they wouldn’t order properly,” Lee recalls. “They would just mumble something, we would give them their drink and they would say ‘That’s not what I ordered.’

“It’s incredibly rude, when you’re speaking with someone I think they should have your undivided attention.”

Melriches has to offer free Wi-Fi to compete with other coffee shops, but Lee said she also wants to “to encourage face to face conversations with real people.”

“People want to come in with their laptops and do some work — that’s cool,” Lee said. “But I also want a neighbourhood place where people come together.”

Customer etiquette has improved since the sign went up and now bashful smartphone users quickly agree to put away their device or step aside and finish their texting or tweeting before ordering.

Lee, a mother of two teens and a twentysomething, said she wishes the world would slow down and embrace the common day-to-day interactions.

Barring that, politely excusing yourself from the front of a lineup while texting or taking a call can make it easier on everyone.

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